I'm Sitting Now . . .

. . . on our balcony just before bedtime and after a violent thunderstorm shook the town of Barcelona this late afternoon. I've just emptied the overflowing plant trays and settled with a beer and a book before bed. It's been an up and down day. A very early start at 6am to prepare the guests breakfast before arriving at the school for the first of six coaching sessions interspersed with a sign off meeting for my new programme design which was well met.

The main down was a non-resident landlord in our passageway opening the passage way chain with his recently-granted key given on the basis that he may have a tenant who needed to park a car there for one night, once in a blue moon. His assistant sent me a message 'kindly advising' that he has let his place to three workmen who have a huge van (think bigger than a camper van or residential home) and who intend to park in the tiny street for the next three months.

Never has a ton of bricks landed on someone more swiftly and heavily than from our street president (me!) moving into action! I was quick to point out the breaches of the street norms re entitlement and size and gave an ultimatum that they had 24 hours to confirm the withdrawal of the vehicle, or I would change the very specialist and expensive padlock and reissue different and also expensive keys to all the 'good' neighbours at a cost of nearly a thousand euros, giving notice that we would charge him with the costs.

After a flurry of indignant emails the landlord has withdrawn the van pending further consideration. Not quite game over, but if the ton of bricks had not landed we'd have been stuck with this big unsightly thing blocking half the street for the next three months!